‘Honey Bees’ is the new single from indie-experimenters Diving Station and is the latest in a string of high-quality releases.
Earlier this year ‘Film’ was a soundscape of scenes and movements; drawn together by a repeating descending vocal figure underscored by a shifting texture of instrumentations, from loud fuzzy guitar to semi-classical acoustic and of course the signature sound of the Celtic harp (or ‘clarsach’).
Starting with a pulsing bass riff, ‘Honey Bees’ takes the sound of the Manchester four-piece in a different direction. On this excellent new track the percussion of electronic sounding handclaps sounds tense and trying to speed up, but the pace is reigned in by the interweaving bass.
The overall dissonant but dreamlike emotion of the song is mainly caused by the imagery of the lyrics, with the literal or metaphorical appearance of the ‘honey bees’ ‘… my grandma used to put them in a jar, those honey bees……they can smell your fear, those honey bees….’ Even the innocuous ‘…the sweetness at the bottom of the cup….’ sounds sinister in the context of these words.
The cryptic ‘….she was a rose, handled by those….’ is a recurring chorus interlude accompanied by harp mini-waves played by singer Anna McLuckie. Guitar effects float in and out and a synthetic(?) string section drifts on the air in this immaculately crafted single, every element contributing to the whole.
Remember, ‘…..you should warn your friends….about honey bees….’
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